In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Lawsuit prompts temporary NASA suspension of HLS contract. Thirteen teams receive awards from the space agency to develop new approaches for excavating resources on the Moon.
Human Space Exploration
NASA “pauses” HLS contract with SpaceX
Coalition Members in the News – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
Spacepolicyonline.com (8/19): NASA on Thursday disclosed that it has halted work under its lunar Human Landing System (HLS) contract with SpaceX until November 1 in response to a lawsuit filed by Blue Origin on August 13. The suit challenges the contract awarded SpaceX by the space agency in April. NASA selected the company for a single HLS award for the Artemis III mission to return humans to the surface of the Moon after an appropriations shortfall prevented awarding two contracts. SpaceX has joined the lawsuit as an intervenor.
NASA awards 500,000 to develop Moon-mining tech
Space.com (8/20): NASA has awarded a total of $500,000 to 13 different teams under its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, a competition designed to foster the development of Moon-mining technology. The extraction and use of lunar resources such as water ice is a priority for the space agency, which is working to establish a permanent human presence on and around the Moon by the end of the decade through the Artemis program.
Astronauts conduct second Chinese space station spacewalk
SpaceNews.com (8/20): Two astronauts installed external equipment and worked with a robotic arm outside the core module of China’s recently launched space station during a spacewalk that began late Thursday, U.S. time. The Tiangong space station, now the orbital home to three Chinese astronauts, is to be fully operational and staffed by the end of 2022. The spacewalkers installed foot restraints, a camera, a work platform on the station’s robotic arm and prepared the thermal control system and other apparatus for the arrival of two more modules next year.
Space Science
Jupiter is at its biggest and brightest this week
Space.com (8/19): Jupiter, which reached opposition to the Earth late Thursday, appears bright in the night sky with Saturn. Both of the large planets are visible to the southeast and close to a bright Moon as the week draws to a close.
Other News
Starsem, Roscosmos, & Arianespace scrub 9th OneWeb mission
Coalition Members in the News – RUAG Space
NASAspaceflight.com (8/19): A second attempt at launching 34 OneWeb small internet communications satellites aboard a Soyuz 2.1b rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is planned for Friday, following a launch scrub on Thursday.
Blue Origin to perform first New Shepard launch under updated license
SpaceNews.com (8/19): Blue Origin will conduct its next New Shepard suborbital mission August 25 with a set of research payloads, but not people, onboard on the vehicle’s first flight under a revised launch license. The flight, NS-17, will carry 18 research payloads inside the capsule, 11 of which are supported by NASA through its Flight Opportunities program. An additional NASA experiment will collect data during the powered landing of the booster to test a sensor and computer system designed for future lunar landers. The spacecraft will also carry paintings by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo on the parachute covers of the capsule as part of an art project by Uplift Aerospace.
South Korea to invest $13.6 billion to bolster defenses capabilities in outer space
SpaceNews.com (8/19): South Korea intends to invest the equivalent of US $13.6 billion over the coming decade to fortify its outer space defense capabilities. “South Korea has ramped up efforts to bolster its defense capabilities in outer space since May, when the U.S. scrapped a 42-year-old nonproliferation restriction that had barred South Korea from developing or possessing ballistic missiles with a maximum range greater than 800 kilometers,” according to the SpaceNews.com report.